GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Through a friend, I recently discovered the album “Medulla� by a recording artist I had never expected to like this much, a little lady from Iceland named Björk. Before now all I had heard of her music had been little snippets and pieces that, by themselves, felt too strange (in an unappealing way) for me to get much interest. But with some more patient listening, I discovered that her music holds a lot more than most people think. Having heard her latest album, I asked my friend that introduced me to it what his favorite was. He told me that to find the album “Post� and give it a listen, and that is exactly what I intend to do, and you all get to come with me!

After listening to the album, three songs really stood out to me as both representative of Björk’s ever evolving style and as my favorites on the CD:

 

2. Hyper-Ballad:

This song has an amazing feel to it, a very light and almost lulling quality that seems to contradict the subject of a woman visualizing hurling herself off of a cliff and imagining what it would be like to hit the bottom. Her lyrics always seem to work seamlessly, and Hyper-Ballad is definitely no exception. The imagery she uses and some of the thoughts she puts in enhance the almost ethereal quality of the song.

4. It’s Oh So Quiet:

After listening to just a few seconds of this song I realized that I had indeed heard it before and seen the crazy music video for it as well. The song itself is a pessimistic look at the perpetual cycle of falling in and out of love set to a combination of contained and wild big band style music with Björk busting out and seeming to have a lot of fun. If you have the chance, definitely check out the music video that goes along with this song, the craziness just makes it all the more fun.

9. I Miss You:

With this track, Björk returns to a dance floor beat with a large latin influence including samba/salsa beats, drums, and trumpet licks. In addition to her great collection of instrumentation, her lyrics have a freedom and at times almost carnal quality to them that takes the song and runs with it.

As my friend suggested, this was an amazing album. While her music is too out of the mainstream (for now) to really become huge in the sense that we’re used to from pop music nowadays (i.e. having a song played as many times an hour as possible until 95% of listeners despise it), but don’t let that discourage you! Pick up one of her albums and give it a chance. You might discover that this gem of a performer really grows on ya!

Audiogasm Intensity: OOOOO - "Phew! I think I need a cigarette!"